Encore
by Singe
Summary: Not everyone gets a happy ending. AU NaruSasu and SuiSasu


**Author's Note: **This is probably not what most of you have been expecting as my first upload after my hiatus (hell, this was not what I was expecting while I was writing it), but this is the result of something that's been floating around my head for ages. It's an odd little story, whose nuances didn't turn out quite like I had planned, but like enough anyway (though I will admit I like the first half better than the second).

Writing this, I feel a little rusty since it's been a long time since I've written anything not academic in nature (and I think it really shows). So, let me know your thoughts in a review and take a look at the poll on my profile to help me decide something.

**Additional Note: **Sasuke's point of view (thoughts/feelings/etc.) on the situation is not presented anywhere in here, so feel free to take anything/everything Suigetsu says with a grain of salt.

**Disclaimer: **Author makes no claim of ownership to the Naruto franchise or any other mentioned in this piece of fiction.

Title:Encore  
Rating:K-T  
Summary:Not everyone gets a happy ending.  
Author: Singe

O0O0O0O

It had been the best years of his life, he was sure. He was certain nothing that had come before or since could rival those years. He was just as certain that nothing, absolutely nothing that could happen in the future would compare. Of course, that is assuming he wasn't able to somehow, someday once again be able to claim that Uchiha Sasuke was _his_.

And although Uzumaki Naruto was known for his somewhat ridiculous and undying belief in himself, he was fairly certain such a thing would never happen, no matter how he wished otherwise.

Before they had graduated from high school, Naruto had believed nothing could come between Sasuke and himself. Yes, they had fought and argued and gone through an extended period of teenage angst, but all of those things had characterized their relationship long before they had become involved, so it was nothing new. And then graduation came, as well as one hell of an offer from a prestigious overseas university for Sasuke. And so, with one last bout of yelling, thrown punches, and emotional outbursts, Uzumaki Naruto was single and Uchiha Sasuke was gone.

It had taken weeks before Naruto had begun to think that maybe, just maybe he had gone too far with some of the things he had shouted at his one-time best friend and lover, though Sasuke had gotten out-of-line as well. It had been well over a year before he had even considered going out with someone else, and even then, on the few dates he had forced himself to go on, it had felt like he was cheating on the absent Uchiha. As the years passed with no communication from Sasuke, the feeling of guilt began to fade and he began to move on. And so what if in those moments when he was totally honest with himself, he could admit a part of him would always believe Sasuke would one day find his way back to him? It wasn't like he was completely fixated or anything.

Life had gone on, and that's all that really mattered. His high school relationship faded more and more into the background, until the dark haired boy was no longer a regular fixture in his thoughts. And now Naruto had a career, an antisocial cat named Kyuubi, and would soon hopefully have his own apartment.

Apartment hunting had taken far longer than he had anticipated, but he had a good feeling about today, about the complex he would soon be touring. But before that, he had just enough time to drop Kyuubi off for his annual visit to the vet. While most animals were examined with the owner present, it had long ago been discovered that the ornery cat behaved far better without Naruto there, as the cat used the time he was absent to plot revenge against the blond instead of trying to enact it, as he would do if his owner was there.

There was a commotion at the front desk as he arrived; a tall, pale man was shouting something about how his fish had just as much right to have veterinary care as the next pet. The poor receptionist looked haggard and was trying to stammer out a response, but was unable to until the man seemed distracted by something.

"I…I'm sorry, sir," she mumbled as she noticed the strange man was looking elsewhere, "but our clinic… d-doesn't offer care for aquatic species, es-especially exotic ones."

"Fine, just watch them for a second then."

"What? Sir—" she began, but was unable to finish as he had marched over to stand directly in front of the man who had just entered the building.

"Oi," he said with a scrutinizing look, "You look kinda familiar. Why?"

Naruto stared at the unusual man who was suddenly blocking his path. He was sure the two had never met before, as he would have no doubt remembered a guy around his age with white hair and unusually pointed teeth. And really, who would forget a blue-eyed blond in a country dominated by darker features? So he said something about him being confused with someone else and attempted to step around the person blocking his way, but was stopped by the man once again stepping in front of him.

"No, I know you from somewhere…" after saying such, he grabbed the chin of the blond and roughly tilted his face side to side, examining it from different angles. "Hmm…have you ever done porn?"

"W-what!?!" Naruto sputtered, almost dropping Kyuubi's carrier in shock.

"Well, that answers that," he seemed to be thinking of other places he could know Naruto from, but was distracted by his cell phone ringing. After glancing at the received text, he cursed under his breath and ran a hang through his already somewhat unruly hair. "Anyway, I gotta go, but I'll figure it out sometime later. I'm Hozuki Suigetsu, by the way. Does that ring any bells?"

"…No," Naruto muttered, hoping that this guy would hurry up and leave already so he could check his pet in and then hurry across town to make his appointment at the apartment building.

"Huh. Well, until I remember whether I like you or not, here's a piece of advice: take the furry thing in the carrier someplace else. This place doesn't know what they're doing."

Having used this particular veterinary clinic for several years, Naruto couldn't stop himself from asking: "What do you mean?"

"I brought some fish in—a couple small lionfish, if you were wondering—and they outright told me to leave…without even looking at them!"

"Well, I don't think fish usually need to go to a vet…"

"Yea, yea, I know…haven't ever brought any of my other ones in, but these are different. These aren't for me—well they kinda are since they'll be in my tank—but you know what I mean. The only reason I got them is because the little bastards remind me of my boyfriend, so I figured he'd like a couple of them in the big aquarium in our apartment. But I wanted to make sure they aren't gonna die in a couple days—since he's weird about things dying, god knows why—and the guy I bought them from was kinda shady."

"How could a fish remind you of a person?" Naruto couldn't help but ask, though his mind was screaming at him just to nod and smile and then walk quickly toward the reception desk.

"Hold on a sec and I'll show you," Suigetsu declared and then stomped back over to where he had left a large fish bowl. The receptionist seemed relieved he had remembered to retrieve his pets, but was no doubt still debating whether or not to call the police to have the white-haired man removed.

The tank that was virtually shoved into Naruto's face contained two fish, each about the size of a tennis ball. The larger of the two was a reddish color, while the smaller was an odd blue-black color. Both were striped with white and covered in long, thin spines which shifted gently in the sloshing water of the tank.

"See?" Suigetsu stated, as if the blond had any idea of how the odd creatures resembled a person he had never met, "they're all spiny and boring most of the time, but they're super poisonous and can cause a lot of problems if they're put in the wrong place. But, they're like him mostly 'cause the spikes…being the weird guy he is, his hair looks like that."

"Huh," Naruto answered, his attention focused on the two fish languidly circling the tank. "Who would wear their hair like that?"

"I know, right? But I told you he's weird."

Naruto barely restrained himself from pointing out that said boyfriend would have to be to be able to put up with the odd man in front of him. He finally decided to ask another question instead. "Didn't you have to be somewhere?"

"Huh? Oh, shit. You're right. The prickly bastard's going to kill me if I'm late picking him up. I guess I could throw one of these at him," he jostled the fish tank slightly to demonstrate, "and if I'm lucky, the venom would at least slow him down. But then again, he might just cut me off, in which case, these guys wouldn't be that much help. Well, anyway…nice talking to you, Naruto. See you around."

And with one final manic smile, the white haired man and his poisonous fish were gone. It wasn't until much later, after Kyuubi had been checked in and he had finished the apartment tour that Naruto realized he had never told Suigetsu his name.

O0O0O0O

"You're late."

"I know…but I ran into someone and stopped to say hello."

"Hn. Anyone important?"

"Not really. He was just a face from the past."

"Then why bother talking to him?"

"I was just curious, I guess."

"Hn. Idiot."

O0O0O0O

It had taken several more weeks of apartment browsing before Naruto had found a place that he was both satisfied with and able to afford. Kiba had bitched the entire time about his roommate ditching him, but the blond was set on moving out of the small, dirt cheap, poor excuse for an apartment they had moved into right after college graduation. Naruto had told him several times he was more than welcome to move to a better place with him, but the other had refused, unwilling to even think of moving somewhere that may or may not be farther away from his latest crush and his favorite bar.

So Naruto had moved, taking his temperamental cat and collection of questionable ramen themed art with him. He had not given much more though to the unusual occurrence at the veterinary clinic until several weeks later when he saw that same bright white hair out of the corner of his eye.

The man was standing next to a shopping cart at the meat counter of the grocery store Naruto had only recently discovered. Suigetsu was smirking in the direction of the employees who were frantically trying to fulfill his apparently large order. As Naruto watched and debated approaching the other man, a pile of wrapped cuts of meat was rapidly growing on the counter, quickly approaching an absurd level (unless Suigetsu happened to run a restaurant, something Naruto highly doubted). Just as his curiosity got the best of him and he decided to make himself known, the white-haired man was slapped sharply upside the head by a person Naruto was unable to see from where he stood.

Still curious, he moved further down the aisle towards the scene in hopes of seeing the assailant, only to be greeted with a painfully familiar sight. It had been years since he had last seen Sasuke, but that annoyed scowl and those dark eyes that always seemed to be asking "Why are you such a dumbass?" would never change. His hair was longer and not quite as wild as it had been in high school, but it was still recognizable as the youngest Uchiha's signature style. All in all, it was like looking at a photograph, one that had been slightly edited over time, but still an image of someone so heartbreakingly familiar.

Naruto had never considered that he might run into Sasuke in their hometown. Yes, he had entertained dreams of going after him, of dragging him back, and for years had even thought of how their life together would be whenever they bothered to reconcile, but never had he imagined he would find Sasuke at a grocery store not far from where they had grown up. As such, he wasn't sure what to do. Should he approach him as if the fight and subsequent years of silence between them had never happened? Should he walk slowly by or approach the meat counter and order something in the hope that Sasuke would approach him?

As he internally debated the merits of being subtle or being direct, he watch as Sasuke smacked a distinctly amused Suigetsu again. His old (boy)friend then turned to the meat counter and said something that caused the employees behind the counter to stop rapidly measuring and wrapping cuts of meat. The Uchiha then removed a large portion of the wrapped packages from the shopping cart, placed them on the counter once again, and then walked away, pushing the cart. Suigetsu trailed behind, apparently laughing at the other's expense.

Naruto stood frozen in place staring at the grumbling employees who were now unwrapping the food they had just packaged. Now that he had gotten over the shock of seeing Sasuke again, what the hell had he just witnessed? Suigetsu had been treated the same way he had always been treated by Sasuke: with a lot of annoyance and a hint of amusement. A part of his mind was saying not to think about it, or about the fact he hadn't really moved on from Sasuke, or that Suigetsu had been standing far too close to the dark haired man.

Without thinking about it, he began to walk in the direction the two had headed, his mind still in shock from the sudden reappearance of the other half of the one relationship he had never quite gotten over. As he could once again hear the arguing of the two he had been following, Naruto paused and pretended to be examining a display of dinner rolls. Every few seconds his eyes would dart back to where Sasuke was now seemingly ignoring whatever Suigetsu was saying to him.

"Come on, Sasuke," Suigetsu nearly whined, "they need to be fed. And it's not like we can't afford to stock up anyway."

Having been ignored by Sasuke before, he couldn't help but feel some sympathy for the white haired man. After all, once the Uchiha decided he was ignoring someone, that person might as well have ceased to exist. But to his surprise, Sasuke grabbed an object from the shelf he had been examining, placed it in the cart, and turned to face Suigetsu.

"First off, they're fish. Nothing about that implies they should be fed steak, even if they are carnivorous. Secondly, regardless of all of the ridiculous animals you do own, I'm fairly certain a large shark is not one of them. Therefore, there is no logical reason to buy even half of what you just attempted to put in the cart."

"But they're not just fish: they're _your _fish. You're ridiculously pampered, so I figure they should be too."

"And by pampering them you mean potentially poisoning them. Lovely."

"Hey, you don't know that."

Sasuke sighed in that particularly annoyed way he had perfected before he had even hit puberty, and turned to give his companion an irritated look that clearly said the conversation was over. Suigetsu seemed to get the message and grumbled something before moving to push the grocery cart further down the aisle.

_Shit shit shit._ Naruto's mind chanted as he stood rooted in place. To anyone else, the overheard conversation would have meant very little. But he had known Sasuke long enough to know his mannerisms by heart and how the other man typically handled the people of various importance of his life. And the way Sasuke treated Suigetsu was distinctly familiar, as it was exactly how _he _had always been treated. Not to mention that conversation itself. Was it possible that Sasuke had been the boyfriend the white haired man had mentioned so casually that day at the vet's office? It would explain how the Uchiha acted around the man he was shopping with.

And holy crap, they were grocery shopping together. It was something so domestic, so unlike anything he had ever done with Sasuke. The combination of that fact and his sudden realization that they two were likely there _together_ sent a burst of emotion through Naruto's system. Hurt. Jealously. Envy. Despair. It was a confusing mass that nearly took his breath away as he wondered why, why, why had he never gone after Sasuke after he had left. All of his previous reasons and justifications flew out the window as he was finally confronted with the fact that maybe Sasuke had been a lot better at moving on than he was.

In a daze, Naruto wandered to the front of the store and got in line to check out, his mind still replaying how things could have been. As he robotically began to load his items onto the conveyer belt, his thoughts were interrupted by the last voice he wanted to hear at the moment.

"Oh hey, Blondie. How's it going?"

Turning around in what felt like slow motion, Naruto came face to face with Suigetsu, who was standing behind him in line and leaning casually on the handle of his shopping cart. Sasuke was nowhere in sight.

"Fine," the blond answered gruffly and glanced back towards the register, hoping the person ahead of him had finished. It was just his luck that the woman seemed to be trying to pay with a combination of coupons and change.

"Good, good. I gotta say, I didn't expect to see you around here, since when I ran into you before it was on the other side of town, but I guess Konoha isn't as big as Kiri."

"Kiri?" he couldn't help but ask, as that had been where Sasuke had gone to college. Was that how the two knew each other? Had Suigetsu been in Sasuke's life just as long as he hadn't?

"Yea, it's where I used to live. Sasuke and I moved here a couple months ago because his brother blackmailed him into coming back for some reason. Hell if I know why. I stopped questioning the Uchiha a long time ago…they're all batshit crazy, anyway."

So they had known each other for a while. And Sasuke had not come back willingly. That little bit of knowledge was something Naruto could have lived without knowing. After all, he was probably the person Sasuke was trying to avoid.

"He's the boyfriend I was telling you about, by the way. I'd introduce you to him," Suigetsu continued, seemingly not aware that his audience was no longer paying attention. "But he had some call he had to take, so he's outside chain smoking while he talks to Itachi."

Having his fears confirmed snapped Naruto's attention back to Suigetsu just in time to see a smirk slowly form on the other's face.

"But then again," the white-haired man drawled, "You've already met him, haven't you? The two of you have known each other for a while, right?"

"What?" the word came out strangled as Naruto noticed the calculating look in the other man's eyes. "Why would you say that?"

"Because I saw you staring at him earlier, and not in the creepy way the poor bastard usually gets stared at. Well, that and you kinda look like this guy in the pictures Sasuke had when we first met. You two went to high school together, didn't you?"

"Yea…yea, we did. We grew up together," Naruto answered blankly while his mind pondered over the fact that Sasuke had apparently kept pictures of the two of them, even after they had broken up and parted ways. If he kept the photos, it meant he still thought about it, right? It meant that Sasuke hadn't completely been able to cut him out of his life, even if it was in such a small way. That train of thought was quickly derailed, however, by Suigetsu's next words.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen any of those in a while. I guess he must have gotten rid of them when he threw away most of his stuff from high school. Oh well, it's not like he ever looked at them anyway."

Naruto was saved from trying to respond to that statement by a loud, shrill sound suddenly emitting from the nearby cash register. The confused cashier was looking thoroughly confused while pounding on the keyboard, trying to make the sound go away. After a few more seconds of the screeching noise, the computer seemed to give a slight shutter before suddenly shutting off. After a moment, the cashier tentatively pressed the machine's power button while silently praying the noise wouldn't come back. When there was no blaring noise, she visibly relaxed and began to restart the interrupted transaction.

"Well, this looks like it will be taking a while," came Suigetsu's voice from behind Naruto. "I think I might go try another lane, or Sasuke might kill me for taking too long. Oh look, there he is now. I guess I'll see you around, Blondie."

And with that, Naruto watched as the other man wandered over to where Sasuke had just entered the store and was looking at the people in the checkout lanes, distinctly irritated. He couldn't stop himself from watching as the two got in line and paid for their groceries, bickering all the while.

As he watched them walking out of the supermarket, he couldn't help but think he should have listened to Kiba and never should have moved. After all, if he had, he would have still been able to believe in the inevitability of his relationship with Sasuke, and he would never have begun to think that maybe, just maybe, the Uchiha could be happy without him.

And that thought, more than anything else, had him breaking down when he stepped into his empty, silent apartment.

O0O0O0O

"What were you doing that took so long?"

"Huh? Oh, just talking to someone."

"For that long?"

"Yea. It was an amusing conversation."

"With who?"

"That guy I met at the vet's office."

"And you felt the need to talk to him again…why?"

"Because he's interesting and I had a point to make."

"…I'm not even going to ask."

"That's probably for the best."

O0O0O0O

**Ending Note: **I feel like Suigetsu is totally out of character…maybe because he is being more devious than obnoxious throughout this fic. Or maybe it's because I kept hearing him speak with a Brooklyn accent whenever I was writing his lines. Either or.

When I started this, there was a point beyond just emotionally beating up Naruto, but in all honesty, I kinda forgot it. So…this is not the best ending this could have had, but I've officially been on hiatus for a year now and I just felt like I needed to get something out, even if it is a little pointless. And before anyone asks, Sasuke didn't see Naruto at the grocery store, and therefore is oblivious to Suigetsu being a jerk to him. Take that (and any and everything Suigetsu said) however you want.


End file.
